- Good morning.
I want to ask God to bless you.
Help you to know how remarkable you are.
- If you choose a job you love,
some people believe you'll never work a day in your life.
- I live in a retirement community.
- I'm probably the only one out of 300+ people who has a job.
- If you could choose,
what traits would you want your children to have?
- Ed Drexler teaches genetics
at Pius XI High School in Milwaukee.
More than 75 years ago, during his 8th grade graduation,
Pius chose him.
- The 8th grade sister said one of you is getting a scholarship
tonight at graduation from Pius XI High School.
Well, the night of graduation,
they call my name off for the scholarship,
which paid a full tuition, which was $50 dollars.
- Ed graduated from Pius in 1944.
He spent two years in the Navy and four at UW-Madison,
where he decided to become an educator.
In 1950, he visited Pius to attend a school play.
During a conversation with the head sister,
Pius chose Ed again.
- I said, "Well, I'm looking for a teaching job."
She said, "Why don't you teach here?"
And that was the start of 66 years at Pius.
- This gene...
- Ed's now 90 years old.
He's taught science classes at Pius for almost seven decades
and mentored thousands of students.
- Well the best part is seeing how kids develop.
How they mature.
How they learn.
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- Including 1976 graduates Tracy Mazzeo and Jerry Barnes.
- I think if someone would've asked me back then,
"What's the probability he would be teaching at 90?"
I would say, "It's pretty high."
- He was fondly known as "Steady Eddie,"
because he was so calm and patient
and no matter what went on at Pius, he kept calm, level head,
knew how to take care of things.
- Generations of families have passed through Ed's classroom.
The fashion and hairstyles have changed,
but Ed's passion for teaching has not.
- I have to say I have a great amount of respect for him
because, with my generation, it is extremely hard to teach us
because we have tons of distractions.
We have cell phones. You have computers.
- I don't like emails.
I want to talk to her.
- I think if you showed the initiative and drive,
he invested in you as a person.
He invested to make sure you were okay.
- I think a meteor could hit Pius High School
and Ed would walk in and say,
"Okay, let's take care of the kids
"and then, let's get together and clean up here."
He'd be as cool as a cucumber.
He's just a very good guy.
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- Spend a few hours at Pius and Ed's impact is obvious.
The school's main office bears his name.
- Remember the relationship between structure and function.
- Even at 90, he still teaches three times a week,
serves as a student advisor,
and organizes the graduation ceremony every year.
There's only one thing Ed hasn't done.
- These days, teachers are trying to retire
as soon as they can.
Ed's still here at 90.
- Well, because I liked it.
I enjoyed being here.
Retiring?
There was no reason for me to retire.
- Allowing them to find and correct mutations.
- Ed acknowledges that one day,
he'll have to leave the lectern behind.
- That could potentially change the future of humanity.
- His teaching days may end,
but retirement still isn't in his lesson plan.
- I still want to be here, so I may not be in the classroom,
but I'll be doing something.
- Sometimes you never work a day in your life
because your life's work chooses you.
- I go back to when my oldest daughter
went to kindergarten right across the street.
She came home after three days and said,
"How come you never go to work?"
I said, "What do you mean by that?"
And she said, "Well, my classmates are all talking
"about their daddies going to work and you never go to work."
And I realized, I never do. I go to school.
I've never referred to what I do as going to work.
I'm going to school.
- Seven decades ago, Pius made the right choice.
- What I would say is, "Thank you."
Thank you for being a role model.
- He has been such a good role model for so many people
over the years.
Just a really, really important part of Pius.
- Here again we have a controversial thing.
- Ed's given thousands of lessons.
He hopes his students always remember one.
- Love is the willingness to extend oneself
for the benefit of another.
If they accept that idea,
that they're in this world to do things for others
and not expecting to be rewarded for it necessarily,
we've accomplished something.
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